Army vet and 50-year US resident seeks re-entry after ‘shameful’ deportation

An Army veteran who overcame a crippling drug addiction and lived in the US for over half a century is now fighting his deportation, saying his minor criminal record should be overlooked because of his military service.

Attorneys representing Arnold Giammarco say he was deported to
his native Italy in November 2012 because of larceny and drug
possession convictions. Arguing in federal court on Tuesday, he
is now attempting to reverse that deportation, claiming that
immigration authorities failed to act on a citizenship
application filed in 1982.

Giammarco lived legally in Connecticut for much of his time in
the United States. He served in the US Army from 1976 to 1979 and
in the National Guard from 1980 to 1983.

The 57-year-old slipped into drug addiction after his time in the
military. He served brief stints in prison in the 1990s and again
in 2007 for shoplifting and drug possession. Giammarco was
homeless for a time, but says he has left drugs behind, found
steady work, and became a father in 2008.

His attorneys told AP that in previous years, US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) refused to deport veterans except in
extenuating circumstances. That policy has now fallen out of
favor, according to the lawyers.

“I think it’s a shameful thing for the United states to take a
man who has lived lawfully in this country for 50 years, who’s
raising a family, who’s working productively, who volunteered for
the armed, served honorably,” said Yale law professor Michael
Wishnie. He, along with his students, is attempting to help
Giammarco.

“It’s a shameful thing to deport him based on minor
non-violent criminal convictions. It’s a departure I think from
our historic treatment of veterans,” Wishnie added.

Giammarco’s grandfather served in the US Army during World War I
but returned to Italy, where his family is originally from, upon
being wounded in combat. Giammarco came to the US with his
parents at age four. He and his wife were married on July 4, 2010
– the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in the states.

But Giammarco was arrested less than one year later, approached
by an armed Homeland Security agent while speaking with his
sister on the phone. He was held in a Massachusetts jail for 18
months before being sent to Italy.

“It was just a big nightmare,” Giammarco told AP in a
telephone interview, adding that he has not been allowed to touch
his young daughter and has missed each of her birthdays since
being taken into custody in 2011.

“She said, ‘Daddy, I’ll save you a piece of cake.’ That just
broke my heart…I just wait for a day to hold my daughter again in
the country that I love.”

The deportation was especially surprising as the veteran’s
trouble with the law has been well-documented.

“Arnold was on parole and probation for years,” his
sister-in-law Amy told AlterNet. “There was a very long period
of time that the United States Court System allowed him –
encouraged him, required him – to get his life together and start
flying right. They released him from jail and allowed him to go
out and create a whole lot worth losing.

“They set him free and told him to go build a life,” she
continued. “He repaired and rebuilt long-ago damaged family
ties. He got married and had a daughter. He even paid a visit to
the immigration building after he lost his green card, they gave
him a new one. No one even hinted that there might be a problem
with his resident status.”

Despite ICE’s claim that the agency is “very deliberate”
in reviewing individual immigration statuses, the case has slowly
attracted international media attention. Giammarco’s wife,
Sharon, started a petition for her husband on Change.org that has
attracted over 3,000 signatures.

“He struggled with addiction and beat the odds, turning his
life around for his wife and little girl, from whom he has been
separated for the past two and a half years,” Sharon
Giammarco wrote. “We have reopened this petition after the
Yale School of Law chose to represent Arnold and try to bring him
home. They recognized the injustice, and we are asking for your
support to show our state and federal government that we
recognize it too.”